The problem of incomplete restaurant service
Thursday, 21 February 2010
This is something we’ve come across quite often when dining out around Perth: service is quite good to begin with – attentive, efficient and prompt – until you’ve been served your main course. It’s as if staff believe their job is done as soon as your main course has been served. I’m quite confident in saying that desserts probably sit in fridges and display cases longer than they have to, and restaurants are missing out on revenue, because of this!
Many times, we’ve seen people leaving a restaurant with their main course dishes still uncleared on their table. This is after they’ve been sitting there for a while, dishes still on the table, clearly waiting for something to happen, and unsuccessfully trying to catch the eye of a waiter. In my opinion, a customer shouldn’t get to the point where he or she needs to ask for his or her table to be cleared. Yes, I know there are impatient, oblivious, unreasonable, demanding now-now-now customers for whom nothing is good enough or fast enough – I’m not talking about them – I’m talking about reasonable, polite, patient customers who, just like anyone else, eventually get frustrated if they’re made to sit there like idiots waiting for too long.
Numerous times we’ve wanted to order dessert but have been frustrated by how hard it is to get a waiter’s attention in order to do so. Jac and I worked in hospitality for years. We understand that when it’s busy it can be difficult for waiters to return promptly to clear tables after main course. We allow for this factor. We can see the activity in the restaurant and how many staff are on the floor and what stage of their meals the other tables are at. We can see when our waiter has been caught up looking after a large table (boy, do we empathise, especially when it’s obvious there are obnoxious people on the table – it makes the shift that much more unpleasant and difficult to get through). We can see when there’s been an unexpected rush and staff are frantically working to get everybody seated and served. But then, we can also see when it would be reasonable to expect a staff member to come over and clear our table. We know waiters have to prioritise and to juggle multiple tables and multiple tasks. And sometimes it’s just a bad old hectic night where things keep going wrong and you just don’t manage to get back to every single table after main course. Those hellish shifts do happen, but shouldn’t be the norm in a reasonably well-run restaurant. This problem of “incomplete service” has happened to us enough times as we’ve dined out around Perth – often at restaurants that are not full or particularly busy and at restaurants where it appeared there was a reasonable staff to table/customer ratio – it happens consistently enough that I suspect it’s a flaw in service.
These days, if I find it difficult to get a waiter’s attention to clear my table after main course and/or to order dessert (I’m talking about repeated attempts to get someone’s attention), I will simply leave and get my dessert elsewhere. Again, I emphasize – this is after waiting for sometime and giving our waiter/the wait staff the time to return to our table, allowing for how busy the restaurant happens to be. Often all we need is some sort of acknowledgement – a glance in our direction, a quick smile and the words “I’ll be with you shortly” – we’re not stupid and we can see when our waiter is busy. We’re reasonable people, but we get very frustrated when waiters refuse to look our way – the old “If I don’t look at them, they can’t ask me for anything” trick. This is a problem for all kinds of businesses, not just restaurants. Regardless of whether it’s deliberate or not, giving customers the impression you’re ignoring them will hurt any business. That’s why I walked out of a certain futon shop years ago and bought my bed from another shop; that’s why Jac and I walked out of a very well known barbecue and outdoor furniture store last year and they lost out on a $1700 sale. I remember every business I’ve walked out of for this reason and I don’t tend to return. I’m sure it’s similar for other people.
Restaurant owners out there, if you’ve ever wondered why your desserts don’t sell as well as you think they should – take a closer look at the service your staff members are providing. They may be letting you down with incomplete service. It’s not that the people of Perth don’t want dessert, it’s that your staff may not be giving them the opportunity to order it! I’m probably stating the obvious here, but a lot of wait staff are simply not doing this: they need to come back to clear the table and offer the dessert menu/coffee. They need to finish the service properly, give your customers the opportunity to order dessert/coffee if they wish, and from your perspective as the owner, give customers the opportunity to spend more money!
There it is, I’ve had my say. It’s over to you guys now – have you been frustrated by similar experiences when dining out? 
I’ve been frustrated about this issue for some time. I was prompted to write this post following a recent dining experience where the food was delicious but let down by the incomplete service we received.
Read the related blog post: Dinner at Hayashi Japanese restaurant
I'm TFP, a food blogger from Perth, Western Australia.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
i don’t dine out a lot but i’ve encountered this about 90% of the times that i have had a meal out.
Gotta give it to the notable exceptions tho: Sandalford Winery’s service just about blew me away when i took my sisters there last year. The weddings i’ve shot there also highlight their consistency of service. Thumbs up for them everytime.
I fully agree with you and it’s a pity.
At least in South Africa, where the bill is brought to your table rather than you going to the counter, they kind of have to come back to the table before you pay. You can at least then ask for a menu for desert.
But sometimes we still get the odd waiter that has already decided that you are finished and will bring the bill without even asking if there is anything else.
The one thing besides the lack of tipping, that makes dining in New Zealand better than in the U.S., is that they do no bring the bill to the table. You can get up, pay and leave at your convenience. Given that Australia us the same as New Zealand in this regard, it could be worse.
I would often go out for lunch with friends in the U.S., and the dining experience would take twice as long as it would here, waiting for service. Waiting to order starters and the main. Waiting to be asked if we want dessert or to pay the bill. Waiting to be asked to pay the bill if we had dessert. Waiting for the bills to be brought. Waiting for the bills and payment to be processed. Heaven forbid that your tip should reflect the time they wasted of yours.
charlene,
Great that Sandalford has impressed you so much. I haven’t attended an event or dined there, but if I’m ever out that way, I’m more likely to try them now, thanks to your accolade!
Craig,
Heh, yes, we’ve had that before – being given the bill without being asked if we’d like anything else. We were quite surprised because it didn’t appear that the restaurant was closing up at the time. Totally the restaurant’s loss, as moments before the bill appeared we were actually discussing which desserts we would order.
Richard,
Ugh, all that waiting would drive me mad. I tried to make it clear in my article that I understand all sorts of things can cause delays and keep staff from coming back to your table. But the waiting you describe sounds terrible – either inefficient or insufficient staff, I think!
If we get bad service , it’s unlikely we’ll go back. There are too many restaurants out there to put up with bad service. We are pretty patient people. If the food isn’t good we don’t blame the wait staff. If it’.s cold, different story. Nobody wants to spend money in these unstable times for lackluster dining experiences. Bad service ruins a meal for me, and I think alot of people feel the same way.
Unfortunately this happens a lot in Perth. What a shame too as with most places the food is great but due to the poor service it just doesn’t make it as satisfying and is very off putting.
There is one place with the worst service..!! but I will not name and shame them, however I recall once after trying to get the attention of the waitstaff to clear plate/order dessert we were actually told that if we weren’t ordering dessert to move to another table!! as they wanted to use our table to join with another to make room for another party.. the table that we actually booked for well in advance! We didn’t even get the chance to actually order any dessert! what a cheek!
“Restaurant owners out there, if you’ve ever wondered why your desserts don’t sell as well as you think they should – take a closer look at the service your staff members are providing.”
That’s a really good point. We generally don’t have that trouble in my small Desert Southwest USA city. Only once in a while.
kathy,
Yep, I agree with everything you said. Not only do I not return, I tell everybody about it.
Ranee,
Pah! If I wanted you to move, I’d have been very polite about it when I asked and I would’ve offered to shout you a dessert or something for your trouble. Keeping you happy with a little freebie would have been worth it – after all, I wanted you to move so I could squeeze in more people – so let’s say I shout you a piece of cake – you’re happy you got something for free, and you might even order a couple of coffees to have with your freebie cake; meanwhile, the other people I’ve squeezed into the restaurant thanks to you moving, well, they’re spending money too and happy I made room for them. So everyone would be happy.
Cindy,
I think it’s a matter of poor training too – if staff aren’t told or taught that they must always clear the main course dishes and offer dessert/coffee, then we can’t be surprised if they don’t think it’s necessary to do that. I had it drilled into me at my first hospitality job – if I didn’t make it back to clear a customer’s table before they left the restaurant, I’d feel like I’d failed in some way, because I hadn’t given them a complete service. And the thing about offering dessert doesn’t mean you have to be pushy or overbearing – it’s just about giving customers the opportunity to have it if they wish.
I have lived and worked in Perth since the late 70’s, and I think, along with family and friends, that service in Perth has become so lacklustre these days that we all prefer to get together and have dinners at homes instead. Staff are compacent lazy and incompetent, but it comes down to the lack of training by the owners. I have also owned and operated my own businesses over the years and can say that if my staff and myself offered what is c.urrently acceptable in Perth hospitality establishments, we would have closed down many businesses due to lack of customers. We do not return to cafes and restaurants where service is non existent, and we tell others about our experiences or ‘lack of’. Perth is seriously way behind compared to the eastern States
Having experienced dining in Australia (Perth) and now the USA I have to say the US is way better at it. It might be a southern thing but nearly everytime I have eaten out I have been pleasantly surprised how attentive the wait staff is. They always come and check to see if we need anything or drink refills etc (soft drink refills are free!!). I think it’s a lot to do with tipping as if they are rude, they don’t get a tip.
Nikki,
On one hand, yes – in the US, staff rely on tips. But you could also argue that staff in Australia have less of an excuse for giving poor service because here, they earn more per hour than in the US – tips are considered a bonus rather than a necessity for staff to survive. When I worked in the industry, it was nice to receive tips, but I certainly did not work with the belief that I was entitled to them. And frankly, I wanted to serve my customers well. That was my job.
I think its all fall back on the owner of the restaurant -
how they train their staff and how well they treat their staff who
will only do the minimum if they are not appreciated.
There’s a restaurant I would imagine that you are familiar with, Yuki Japanese in Willetton (in the same complex at Taurus Hawker Foods – and thank you for putting me on to that little gem!) that has good food, a lovely atmosphere but what has turned me into a weekly diner there is the outstanding service. You are asked if you wish to order drinks as soon as you are shown to your table – and if you say “can you please give us a couple of minutes?” they say “certainly” – and they return in two minutes! When your drinks arrive you’re asked if you’re ready to order. And when you order and your starters have arrived and you’re enjoying them – I don’t think I have ever gotten more than three-quarters of the way through without politely being asked if we were ready for the kitchen to start preparing the main course. I usually ask them to start in about ten minutes, and they don’t ask again – they just remember, and tell the kitchen, and get it right. And as soon as your glass is empty you are offered more drinks. When your plates are cleared – and it’s usually immediately after the meal is finished – you are offered desserts.
They have recently upgraded some of their utensils – chopsticks, and soup spoons – however I find them hard to manage – whenever I come in, the owner greets me by name, and I am shown to my table, and they trade the new chopsticks for the older ones that I find less awkward without even being asked.
That is the high standard of service that has kept me a loyal customer and that has seen me introduce various friends to that restaurant. That is the standard to which many other restaurants in Perth should aspire.
We’ve found this problem to be particularly endemic in Italian restaurants, we thought it was just our local ones several of who’m lost us for good before we went to Rome and found it exactly the same, not once did we manage to order dessert or even more drinks once our main had been served, we then found exactly the same on a later trip to Florence.
It drives me mad, we now call it the Italian waiter effect regardless of where we’re eating.